Shadow Robot Companyhttp://www.shadowrobot.com
Thu, 17 Aug 2017 15:21:39 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8Robotics Sector Deal Consultation & Workshophttp://www.shadowrobot.com/robotics-sector-deal-consultation-workshop/
Fri, 11 Aug 2017 15:27:06 +0000http://www.shadowrobot.com/?p=5755In January this year, Government published a Green Paper on Building our Industrial Strategy. In it is set an ‘open door’ challenge to industry to come to the Government with proposals to transform and upgrade their sector through ‘Sector Deals’. Businesses rather than the Government are being encouraged to identify what companies need in order to enhance their competitiveness as a sector.

This is not about the Government providing additional funding; rather, it is an open call to business to organise behind strong leadership, like the automotive and aerospace sectors, to address shared challenges and opportunities.

Government is looking for businesses to collaborate with other stakeholders, such as universities and local leaders to produce a clear proposal for boosting the productivity of their sector, setting out detailed plans to address challenges such as:

delivering upgrades in productivity, including in supply chains;

promoting competition and innovation;

facilitating long term investment and coordination between suppliers and primes;

accelerating growth across the value chain, including by identifying where the greatest value can be gained from technology development and investment;

developing and growing the strengths of particular clusters;

increasing exports; and looking at how we can use trade and investment deals to help the sector;

commercialising research across sectors; and

boosting skills and the number of high value, high productivity jobs.

To help provide evidence for the proposed Robotics Sector Deal, the Robotics Sector Deal Proposal Team would like to understand what activities are taking place in the UK that are in alignment with the existing RAS Strategy, and what new ones could be enabled by Government action. To this end they are reaching out to the RAS Community to collect this information through an online survey questionnaire which we would encourage you to fill in here. The answers will be collated to provide a high-level synthesis of the survey rather than providing the full detail.

(If you are not familiar with the way we use the terms Asset, Skills, Coordination, Clusters and Challenges, then please have a quick look at the RAS UK Strategy here.)

Additionally, on 6th September from 13:00 – 16:00 a Robotics Sector Deal Consultation Workshop will be held in London. The Sector Deal Proposal Team would like to share with the Robotics Community the structure of the proposed sector deal and provide another opportunity to gather your inputs to feedback into the proposal process, especially around the mechanisms of the deal and projects that it could enable. The Sector Deal Proposal Team are particularly keen to hear from people who have provided answers to the consultation survey questionnaire.

Register your interest to attend the workshop here and please save the date. Attendees will receive confirmation of their place on Wednesday 30th August.

]]>CHIRON Care Robotics Art Challengehttp://www.shadowrobot.com/chiron-care-robotics-art-challenge/
Thu, 13 Jul 2017 10:30:08 +0000http://www.shadowrobot.com/?p=5599The CHIRON project is holding an arts competition in conjunction with UK Robotics Week 2017 to encourage people to think creatively about how we care for people in the future.

The UK has a growing population of people who need care and a limited workforce and budget to do it with. Using robots will be part of how we manage the future of care.
The competition will be judged by members of the CHIRON team, an experienced group of engineers, designers, professors and professionals with experience in working towards building assistive technology for the care sector.

We want to hear from you if you are 16 or over (there is no upper limit), living in mainland Great Britain and have one of the following:

A unique drawing or computer graphic of a robotic solution that you think could make a real difference to society

A piece of artwork which relates to care robotics

Creative writing which explores the care crisis landscape or a positive future of humans and care robots.

Something outside the box!

Whatever your idea or creation, we look forward to receiving it.

The Challenge for the UK

We are facing a care crisis of epic proportions. In less than 20 years’ time the number of over 65’s in the UK, currently at 10 million, will have risen to 17 million. Yet estimates show we won’t have sufficient care workers to tend to this ageing population. The demand on our existing healthcare services will require fresh ideas and perspectives for how we face these challenges. The long term care market is currently worth over £20 billion to UK economy. It is expected to grow up to 50% by 2020.

Assistive robots remain in the background of today’s “not fit for purpose” care system. While governments fund projects that focus on designing care robotics for the future (such as CHIRON) we must tread carefully when designing technology to work with humans at their most vulnerable stage in life. The question many are now asking is: what should these assistive robots be like – should we design this technology to look like a machine, or should we attempt to make them seem more human?

As an incentive, CHIRON and Designability are offering some exciting prizes detailed below.

First Prize

The idea considered the best by the CHIRON judges will be rewarded with £500 cash, an overnight stay in a hotel in Bristol and a chance to see robots under construction with a guided tour for you and a friend of Bristol Robotics Laboratory with a member of the CHIRON team!

Second Prize

The idea that is deemed our second favourite, and shows a high level of creativity and merit, will be rewarded with a £100 book voucher plus you and a friend will have a guided tour of Bristol Robotics Laboratory with a member of the CHIRON team (we will also cover travel costs to and from BRL).

Highly Commended

A list of names of any highly-commended entrants will be published on the CHIRON website.

(Please note: Under 18’s will be required to bring a parent or guardian along for the tour of the laboratory).

All Entries

CHIRON reserves the right to work with entrant to exploit ideas that have commercial merit and align with the objectives of the CHIRON project. This means that if you come up with a really useful idea that fits into the future exploitation of CHIRON, you own a part a product for the future of robot assisted care.

]]>WE’RE HIRING!http://www.shadowrobot.com/were-hiring/
Fri, 07 Jul 2017 12:00:19 +0000http://www.shadowrobot.com/?p=5553Ever wanted to work for a growing robotics company in the heart of London? Now’s your chance! We’re looking for two people to join us in the roles of Events Assistant and Junior Project Manager.

You’ll be joining a team that spans the globe – as well as our London office, we have recently opened a new office in Madrid, as well as having a presence in France, Ukraine, Hungary and Columbia.

We’re committed to equal opportunities, and we’re a diverse bunch here at Shadow – if you feel you fit the bill in terms of what we’re asking for, then we want to speak to you! We also understand that life comes first – which is why we offer flexible working to allow for any caring responsibilities you may have.

The Events Assistant role requires someone who loves travelling, networking and fostering ongoing relationships. We’re looking for someone to attend conferences for Shadow, talk about our work and be proud to show off our latest demo. If that sounds like something you’re interested in, have a look at the job description here.

The Junior Project Manager role requires someone who is an experienced software developer and led a few projects, but is now looking for a more PM focused role. You’ll be working with our Head of Operations to manage multiple projects, attending meetings and producing reports. Does that sound like your next job? If so, have a look at the job description here.

We look forward to hearing from you

]]>New Distributor for Singapore: AMA Asiahttp://www.shadowrobot.com/new-distributor-for-singapore-ama-asia/
Thu, 06 Jul 2017 14:00:40 +0000http://www.shadowrobot.com/?p=5518The last couple of months here at Shadow HQ have been super busy – and it looks like it’s going to continue. We’ve taken on another distributor, this time for the Singapore region – say hello to AMA Asia.

Automated Micron Assembly, or AMA for short, have been a supplier/systems integrator for the Southeast Asian region for 20 years, and also have offices in Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. They’re a leading sales and technical support company providing comprehensive products and solutions in the field of motion controls, robotics, semiconductors, precision measurements and Instrumentation.

Our MD Rich Walker says ‘AMA’s experience and knowledge of the Singaporean market is very attractive to us. We’re really excited to be working with them and look forward to the partnership progressing’.

]]>REVIEW: #9PercentIsNotEnoughhttp://www.shadowrobot.com/review-9percentisnotenough/
Fri, 30 Jun 2017 17:15:40 +0000http://www.shadowrobot.com/?p=5514Did you know that currently only 9% of the UK’s engineering and technology workforce are female? Don’t you think that’s weird? At Shadow, we’re committed to making this number higher. But how do we do it? Last week we headed to Birmingham to attend the #9PercentIsNotEnough conference, organised by The IET to find help answering that question.

The day opened with Elizabeth Hill of Jaguar Land Rover talking about her vision for her industry: “I want more women to make cars and I want more women in the industry staying making cars”. She went on to mention how the UK has the lowest percentage of female engineers in Europe, which she finds “devastating”. Latvia, Bulgaria and Cyprus lead the way with almost 30%. Outside of Europe the figures are even better – 33% in India and 40% in China.

Hill spoke about her experiences at school, where teachers recommended she try the worlds of banking and academia – which she did, but didn’t enjoy the work. She went to uni and studied Maths and begun temping at an engineering firm, and built her career from there. She said “ My career was a happy accident, but happy accidents don’t get the figure over 9% – we need to do more”. She suggests promoting engineering to young girls in schools – which becomes a recurring topic throughout the day. “Teachers need to be trained and educated, they must provide informed choices to children”. Hill goes on to say that Jaguar Land Rover have a specific focus on diversity and actively try to attract women to join the company – it’s a priority for them.

“You can’t be what you can’t see”

Nadia Savage, a director at Laing O’Rourke, explained that between 2006-2009, there wasn’t a single female playing a scientist, politician, lawyer or business leader in a Hollywood film, and as the American activist Marian Wright Edelman once said – “you can’t be what you can’t see”. Savage made the point that if we have no positive role models in the media, then it’s extremely difficult for young girls to imagine themselves in such a role.

Dawn Elson (Group Engineering Director at Merlin Entertainments) explained that when she first began her engineering career in the military 20 years ago, there were just 7% of women working in engineering. You could hear the gasps of shock in the room – there’s only 2% more women working in the industry now than 20 years ago! She also said that she once put together an all-female team of engineers…”and it was just as bad as an all-male team! Which taught me something – you really need diversity in a team to make it thrive”. She went on to say that we need to educate our teams, both male and female, to get them to understand the issues around gender diversity.

Clare Wildfire, Projects Director at Mott McDonald, said “girls want to solve real world problems. That’s what we do in engineering, but the language the industry uses doesn’t convey that”. This really struck a nerve with the audience. Discussion turned to other aspects that could attract women is considering if jobs can be done remotely, or part time, or even job shared. Savage said she saw a problem in her work – “there’s far too much site presenteeism – we seem to live in a culture where it’s the norm to work 12-16 hour days. This isn’t attractive to most women! Also, it can’t be that attractive to men either! I encourage people to leave on time and really back them up with that”. Mark Elborne, CEO of GE UK & Ireland, said “it’s all about culture, you need to set a good direction. And set an ambition to hire more women, and communicate it.” Peter Flint, an executive at AECOM, was brave enough to say what we were all thinking: “Men have a massive role to to play in all of this. There are men here today, which is good, but there should be far more men in this room.” We have to agree with that statement. The gender split seemed to be 70% women and only 30% men at the conference.

The need for change

Here at Shadow, gender diversity is important to us. We sent 3 members of staff to the conference, one of whom was female. Unfortunately she fell foul to an older gentleman patronising her in one of the workshops (and she wasn’t alone, a few other women at the event had similar experiences). She raised this in the final panel debate of the day, with two excellent panellist choosing to tackle the issue: Richard Chapman Harris (Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Manager at Mott MacDonald) and Nike Folayan (chair, Association for Black & Minority Ethnic Engineers) acknowledged how painful it is for women to put up with dinosaur behaviour and said that episodes of everyday sexism must be challenged. Chapman-Harris said “I know it’s difficult to challenge it, as the men just think there’s something wrong with you, but you have to”. Folayan added “I was working as a senior engineer, and had a junior with me. He said ‘Oh if I had your typing skills I could go far’. I just felt sorry for him, and put him in his place!”. Good advice!

The auditorium at the The IET was packed out with 150 delegates, there was lots of positive discussion and there was certainly a feeling that things need to change. But it’s clear that we have some way to go before we see more gender balance in STEM careers. We are now working on policies to ensure greater diversity here at Shadow, which we’re happy to share to encourage best practice. This is something we are passionate about. If you’d like to share your ideas or talk more about gender diversity, tweet us at @ShadowRobot.

]]>REVIEW: TechXLR8 / London Tech Weekhttp://www.shadowrobot.com/review-techxlr8-london-tech-week/
Mon, 26 Jun 2017 15:30:17 +0000http://www.shadowrobot.com/?p=5454We recently exhibited at the inaugural TechXLR8 event at London’s ExCel. It was a huge event, absolutely jam-packed with all types of tech companies – from established names to new start-ups. We exhibited a beta version of our Smart Grasping System in the Robot Demo Zone as part of the ‘AI & Machine Learning World’ (which was just one of 8 different zones, the others being 5G World, IoT World Europe, Cloud & DevOps, Apps World Evolution, VR & AR, Project Kairos and Connected Cars & Autonomous Vehicles.

TechXLR8 was the flagship event of London Tech Week (#LTW) and was launched by the Mayor of London – Sadiq Khan. The opening address was given by Culture Secretary Karen Bradley who said ‘London Tech Week is a terrific showcase for the brilliant work happening in this country in tech – and another reminder of our vast potential.’

We managed to catch up with some of the conference content at the show too, which was varied and interesting. Some of the highlights of the conference included seeing the effervescent Bibop Gresta (one wonders if his mother calls him that?) discussing the potential of the Hyperloop. It’s a fascinating concept that seems too futuristic to be true – you hop into a pod and then you’re zipped along at an amazing pace to your destination. Apparently the technology for this idea was thought of in the 1800’s if you can believe it – and now in 2017, Bibop is ready to build it! They are building the first Hyperloop in Qatar. Watch this space on how it develops…

VR vs AR

We spent some time in the VR & AR zone, where a very brave soul dared to ask the $64,000 question… which is better – VR or AR? After some vague rumblings from the stage and the audience, it seemed like the sway of the room was towards AR. What do you think? A big theme in the VR & AR zone was that you need to make the user experience really good. Vera Grablechner of Virtual Village VR said ‘if someone tries VR for the first time and they feel sick, will they want to try it again?’ She makes a good point.

As well as exhibiting, our MD Rich Walker spoke at the AI & Machine Learning Robotics Summit. The talk was called ‘The CHIRON Project: Designing Care Robotics for the Future’ and also featured Jobeda Aii of Three Sisters Care, one of our partners in CHIRON. They spoke about the vision of the project and why it’s so important – did you know that by 2020 we will be 750,000 care workers short of what the UK needs? We have an ageing population who rapidly cannot afford care (which is on average £47,000 per annum). Rich stated that if we can make care robotics on a mass market scale, it will bring the cost of the robots down greatly.

Another highlight of the exhibition was seeing the ‘real life Iron Man’. Sounds like a ridiculous thing to say – but Richard Browning is ever so similar to Tony Stark (minus the little beard). Browning has built a suit that powers him through the air. He self funded the suit at first from money earnt whilst trading in Canary Wharf, since then he’s found funding and the suit has ‘taken off’. In true Tony Stark style, he was a charming man with some very interesting tech. We were also treated to a live demo of him in the suit, whizzing around the old docks at ExCel. After a few false starts, the suit roared to life, making an impressive buzz as it whipped past the crowd.

As well as our SGS in the exhibition, there were also some other pretty cool demos in the hall. Probably the best and most engaging demo was surprising from the Leicestershire Fire and Rescue service. They set up a mock crime scene, and delegates had to wear VR headsets to search for victims. They also had another VR headset which they usually use to show people in schools and colleges the need for careful driving. The footage was harrowing, showing the consequences of a car crash – it was incredibly intense and very moving.

It was a very busy 3 days, which saw over 15,000 attendees head to ExCel. For more info about the show, take a look at the TechXLR8 website. For more info about our Smart Grasping System which we exhibited there, click here.

]]>NEXT. robotics come aboard as new distributor for the Shadow Robot Companyhttp://www.shadowrobot.com/next-robotics-come-aboard-as-new-distributor-for-the-shadow-robot-company/
Fri, 16 Jun 2017 10:45:19 +0000https://www.shadowrobot.com/?p=5409Even though we came from humble beginnings, we’re now established as a company with a worldwide reach. Which is why we’re really happy to announce that we have a new overseas distributor – NEXT. robotics.

NEXT. have evolved from FREI Technik, a German company that has been around since the fifties that specialised in sales and project planning in the field of assembly and handling technology. NEXT. has taken a slightly new direction, moving towards human-friendly light-weight robotics. They will be our distributor in the German speaking DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland).

NEXT. are headed up by Marcus Frei, who has years of experience in the industry. He said: “We’re really happy to add the Shadow Robot Company to our interactive product portfolio; their technology greatly compliments our current focus on Advanced Robotics and Artificial Intelligence! We’re looking forward to working with them on existing and future challenges in the research market, as also on the transition to real life adaption.”

Rich Walker, our Managing Director, said ‘It’s a great pleasure to work with NEXT. – we’re really excited to do business with Marcus and see our Shadow Hands amongst the products he sells.’ Our Hands sit nicely alongside the other grippers that NEXT offer, including Robotiq, RightHand Robotics and Barrett Technology. They also sell robot arms, sensors and platforms – everything you could possible want!

]]>VIDEO: University of Bielefeld using Shadow Hand in their ‘self-learning’ researchhttp://www.shadowrobot.com/video-university-of-bielefeld-using-shadow-hand-in-their-self-learning-research/
Mon, 12 Jun 2017 13:47:27 +0000https://www.shadowrobot.com/?p=5381University of Bielefeld using Shadow Hand in their ‘self-learning’ research

We love the folks at Bielefeld – they’ve been good friends of ours for many years (they even made us the cutest birthday card). They’ve been using our Dexterous Hands in their research for a long time now; we always love getting updates and finding our what our Hands are up to! Click the video to see how the hand learns what an apple is – it’s well worth the watch.

For #LTW, you can find us exhibiting at the TechXLR8 event (13th – 15th June) on stand RD2. TechXLR8 is the anchor event of London Tech Week, showcasing eight leading technology events: 5G World, Cloud & DevOps World, Internet of Things World Europe, Connected Cars & Autonomous Vehicles Europe, Apps World Evolution, VR & AR World, AI & Machine Learning World and Project Kairos. Tickets to the exhibition are free, grab yours here.Our MD, Rich Walker, will also be speaking at the TechXLR8 conference with Jobeda Ali (CEO, Three Sisters Care) in the ‘AI & Machine Learning World: Robotics Summit’. Their talk will be about ‘The CHIRON project: Desiging Care Robotics for the Future’ and takes place on 14th June at 2.15pm. Tickets to the conference are available here.

For #UKRW2017, Rich will be attending the kick-off event at the Robots exhibition in the Science Museum on 26th June. The CHIRON project will also be holding a free event at Google Campus on 30th June called ‘Startup to Finished Product – An Entrepreneur’s Perspective’ – free tickets are available here.

Are you attending any events in London or around the UK this month? Let us know on Twitter at @shadowrobot.

]]>Meet Juan LaForga, manager of our new Madrid officehttp://www.shadowrobot.com/staff-profile-juan-laforga/
Fri, 02 Jun 2017 16:48:13 +0000https://www.shadowrobot.com/?p=5355We’re like a family here at Shadow, and we love to see our employees grow and achieve their goals. Here’s the story of Juan, a workshop assistant who became our Head of Production, and is now setting up our new Madrid office…

“I grew up close to Madrid in a town called Valladolid. If I lived again, I would have left my town sooner, perhaps tried studying on Erasmus, but I decided to stay and get my degree in my home town. I studied Industrial Engineering, specialising in mechanics and building structures. I always passed my exams, and I stayed in the same place for a long time. One day, my best friend told me that they were going to London to study Dance, so I thought I’d go along with them – that next day I bought a ticket to London. I stayed with my cousin for a couple of weeks before getting a room share with two other people, and took a job in a popular McFastFood chain. It was horrible, the worst experience for me, but I learnt a lot. I was privileged to work with people from all over the world, but on the flip side – I had hamburgers thrown at me!

“I went to a party with some colleagues, and by chance I met a guy called Armando who worked for a robotics place called the Shadow Robot Company. I wanted to leave the fast food place and seek a new opportunity at Shadow! It should have been easy to leave, but it was fraught with legal complications, and I took them to court (and won). It wasn’t a happy time, however I know I’m privileged, and a huge part of my story has been an adventure to me.

“In January 2011 I started work at Shadow. Even though my degree was in engineering, I had no robotics experience. For the first three months, I didn’t want to touch a robot! I thought I’d break them! I started as a Workshop Assistant, working for 8 hours a day wearing ear protectors using a milling machine. It was noisy and monotonous, but I was so happy to do it compared to my last job! I stayed doing this for a couple of years; during this time I learnt a lot about the philosophy of Shadow – everyone is available to help you. They treat employees so well. It was so different from my last job – that was like the night time, Shadow was the light of the day.

From milling to management

“My role evolved, and I was tasked with developing a quality system to test the reliability of the product. I started to understand more about the robots. I’m not an expert, but I now know a bit of everything! So I was the Quality Engineer for a couple of years, but by the end of 2013, I started to really dislike the weather of London. My friends thought I was ill because I was so pale! So I took a break and spent a month in South America. It really recharged my batteries. When I went back in January 2014, I became the Production Manager. I began to do more things in my role, I got to travel to visit clients, go to conferences, lead the production team.

“In Autumn 2015, I wanted to go home to Spain, so I started to commute to work from Madrid (I’d work from home on Mondays and Fridays, and on Tuesdays I’d leave home at 4am and get to work in London for 10am, then leave on Thursdays at 8pm before arriving home at midnight). I have to say a huge thanks to my friends who have supported me and let me stay with them when I’m in London. Especially to my friends at Shadow.

“What do I like about Shadow? Everything! I love Shadow, I love the philosophy here. I love the tech we have, the people, the fact that everyone helps and teaches everyone else (which is hard to find in bigger companies). Everyone talks to everyone, you can chat to the Managing Director over a pint in the team meetings, it’s really open.

“2017 is an exciting year for us, as we are opening a new Shadow office in Madrid. I’ll have the chance to build an office from scratch, it’s a real challenge, and I love that. I’m looking forward to building rapport with other companies in Spain, building a hub of robotics knowledge. We’ve just found our office which is in the heart of Madrid. I’m going to live properly in my country, but still get to work for my dream company. My friends can’t believe it, they think I’m the luckiest person in the world!”